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Iolani Carmichael
Personality An odd mix of warrior and caretaker, of soldier and spiritualist, Iolani is a woman trying desperately to be strong enough for the fight that's coming. A fight that we very well might not win, and yet, can't hide from. With her rickety past and patchwork fixes, there's some lingering doubt she'll be ready. But, in her mind, there's no other choice, so she presses on. Her mind is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse. She tends to understand other people and situations, but she doesn't empathize. And she's sometimes a little manic when she gets focused in on a thought. But, she has a bright mind and has done a lot of studying and learning to keep that mind sharp. After all, keeping the troops at their best is the only chance they have. Sheet Attributes: : Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3 : Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2 : Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 3 ::Intelligence Specialty: Logical Abilities: : Talents: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Primal Urge 3, Resistance 3, Vigilance 3 ::Brawl Specialty: Dirty Fighting : Skills: Meditation 3, Performance (Guitar, Singing) 2, Survival 2 : Knowledges: Academics (Military History, Mythology) 2, Cosmology 3, Medicine 3, Military Tactics 3, Rituals 4, Science (Algebraic Theory, Calculusness, Trigonometry) 3 ::Rituals Specialty: Mystic Rites Advantages: : Backgrounds: Rites 5, Totem 3 : Willpower: 6 : Rage: 2 : Gnosis: 5 : Gifts: Resist Pain (1), Spirit Speech (1), Master of Fire (1), Grandmother's Touch (2) : Rites: Bone Rhythms (0), Breath of Gaia (0), Hunting Prayer (0), Prayer for the Prey (0), Rite of Moot (1), Rite of the Opened Caern (1), Rite of Talisman Dedication (1), Rite of Cleansing (1), Washing the Spirit (1), Rite of Becoming (2), Rite of Spirit Awakening (2), Running with the Wyld (2), Rite of Gaian Blood (3), Rite of Totem (3), Weeping for a Vision (3) : Merits: Acute Senses: Scent (1), Natural Channel (3) : Flaws: Addiction: Cigarettes (1), Hunted (3), Pierced Veil (3) Freebies (45) Extra Rites: -9 Backgrounds: -1 Gnosis: -8 Willpower: -2 Talents: -6 Skills: -4 Knowledges: -18 Merits: -4 Flaws: +7 Merits & Flaws ;Merits *'Acute Senses' 1 :Just a talent she has for sniffing out what's around her. She's more likely to smell a person coming than hear them. At least at first. (*sniffsniff* Like Wolverine! :D) *'Natural Channel' 3 :Perhaps from her constant work with the spiritual, Iolani feels pretty at home in the Umbra and has found her passage through the Gauntlet to be a little easier. ;Flaws *'Addiction' 1 :Cigarettes! She's pretty much always seen with one in hand or between her lips. And usually they're homemade. It's to help with her nerves. Without them, she gets shaky and frantic, tends to panic easier. *'Hunted' 3 :Marco Gibbons, Black Spiral Dancer and Galliard, he got attached to the girl when she was just a young thing and successfully built up Stockholm's Syndrome in the girl. he's hoping it's something that's lasted despite the Gaian's attempts to 'fix' her. He's also a little reluctant to let go of his handiwork. *'Pierced Veil' 3 :Unfortunately, Iolani's war forms have never had the ability to incite delirium. It's caused her home sept a number of problems before they caught on, but once they did, she was instructed on how to be more careful. Backgrounds *'Rites' 5 :From her cubhood onward, Iolani was taught rites. At first, it was a technique to try to focus her frantic mind and unsettled demeanor. Something to rein her in a bit. But, as her career went on, she continued to learn, soaking in whichever of them people would teach her, or what she could intuit herself. *'Totem' 3 :Being a Theurge, she's spent much of her years as a garou interacting with the spirits. And cultivating a positive image among them. Advancement Advancement History History The Carmichael family did a lot for furthering the population of the garou and their kinfolk. A lot. Their eldest daughter had brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles galore. It's easy for people to be lost in the crowd in such a family. But Iolani stood out. Although her Baptism of Fire marked her as a Kin, she became the pride of her family. She was smart. Logical. Gifted. And because she wasn't a garou, they could send her to tutors and schools that would make the best of her gifts. When she was ten, her parents found the Winward Institute, a school for budding young genuises. They were swept away by the promises of Harvard and MIT and chess masters and the competitive atmosphere and signed her up without much checking up. But they did send a shadow nurse with her to the mainland, a kinfolk who could keep an eye on their beloved daughter. The school was tough. They controlled every inch of the children's lives to maximize brain activity. From clothes to food to extracurriculars, everything was planned out and scheduled. The nurse was only allowed to see Iolani for short periods of time, and never alone, so the two were never able to converse. What none of the children or parents knew was that Winward was run by Spirals and their kin, working on brainwashing the best and brightest the country had to offer, so they would be influenced the way the Wyrm wanted, with no resistance. Iolani was so young when she started, there was really no chance for her to understand what was happening. Her teachers and headmasters were hard on all the kids. No score was good enough, no project brilliant enough, no insight impressive enough. Most of the kids, including Iolani, were on some drug or another to help them think clearer, stay awake longer, study more, be /better/. She was known to stay awake for the entire week of exams, to make sure she got in all the studying she could. She'd stay awake until she crashed, and the memories of the days before would be fuzzy, or would come and go. The red flags started to go up when her nurse found her journal tucked under her pillow. While most of it was in her neat and even handwriting, around the more tense times, the writing would get impossibly small as if she were trying to fit all her thoughts onto one page. Or it would get hectic and frenzied, written in crooked directions or in spirals out from the center or in layers, writing over writing. The nurse got word to their home sept that she thought something was off about the school, but would observe more. What she didn't know was that one of the school's staff, a lab assistant and (unknown) Black Spiral Dancer by the name of Marco Gibbons had befriended Iolani. He was the only authority figure that was nice to her. He did little things, like sneaking her candy bars or making sure she got the extra fluffy pillows and other such small favors that felt like the /world/ to the young girl. Perhaps he recognized her garou heritage. Maybe she was just plucked out of the crowd. But by the time the nurse had sent a report back to the sept that she suspected Spiral activity at the school, Iolani was neck deep into Stockholm's. She didn't know that they'd had her nurse killed when they found her snooping around, in fact, Marco kept all the bad things from her. Protected her, you might say. But the Big Wave was already on the move. They mounted a scouting mission to find prove to send to the human authorities to get the place closed down. And also to rescue little Iolani. Little Iolani with nearly four years of indoctrination in her head. When she realized she was being taken away from the school and from Marco, her rage tipped the scales and she firsted there in her dorm room. Luckily, she was put down fast and spirited away, taken back to the Big Wave for training and... serious reeducation. It was a hard road, but the cubmaster refused to give up on her. Beren Akana. And she worked hard, even through the withdrawal from her drugs and her attempts to keep up her old study habits of not sleeping for days on end. She found that cigarettes helped her focus, which she recognized as a purely psychological phenomenon, but it worked for her. Beren started her in on learning rites early, In hopes that it would calm her down and refocus her on the garou lifestyle. Along with a harsh physical training and spiritual teachings, the elders tried to patch her up enough to make her a productive member of society. It seemed to work eventually, as she was able to rite after a year. They called her Glimpse-of-Darkness after Unicorn accepted her. He spoke to her of her need for vigilance against her darkness, and she took the name as a reminder to keep herself in check. It was while she was a cliath that she was approached by others in the Imminent Strike camp, and their view of the coming war and the responsibility falling to them to be ready to fight while their brothers tried to avoid the fight and hunt for peace. And peace would be wonderful, but someone has to be ready for the fight. And if the others won't be ready to switch gears... by golly they would be. It was compelling. She was sold right off the bat. Her training turned more toward battle then, tactics and fighting as well as the more medical side of things. She joined several packs in those years, going on missions and fighting the Wyrm for more... hands on training. And eventually, she was even able to claim the position of Master of the Rite for the caern. It wasn't all work, though. There was down time. She learned to play the guitar for those nights around fires on the beaches. There was laughter. She even got herself beaten soundly in a challenge that involved surfing. Which, of course, prompted her to get better at that particular sport. It was a wonderful backdrop, the island. Relaxing and calm, laid back, even. She didn't challenge for fostern for some time. Longer than she really needed to wait, but she wanted to be sure she was ready for the weight of responsibility. And when she finally did, she was set to patrol hostile Umbral territory for three nights. She did it for three days and nights, not wanting to saddle someone else with her personal responsibility during something that important. And thanks to her old habits, she was able to do so, even if it did leave her panicked and edgy by the end. But she came back successful and earned the name Dusk-Till-Dawn. From there, she continued her job as Master of the Rite and took on extra responsibilities with the cubs' training, and led a few missions herself. She found she preferred to follow, but being fostern, she would lead when it fell to her. But... things changed when her old friend Marco finally found her. He and a pack of spirals came to the Big Wave, not announcing what their purpose was, but they harassed and harried the sept until Iolani and her pack were lured out. And he tried to take her. And she... found that she still wanted to go with him. He wasn't as bad as the others, she knew. She believed. He tripped up somewhere along the way, but under it all... he was still a good man. It was her former cubmaster that came to deliver the finishing blow and she... stopped him. Begged him to let Marco go. He wasn't like the others! Of course, in the argument, Marco slipped away and Iolani was given the beating of her life. But, Beren viewed it as his own failure as well, and his guilt kept him from reporting her to the Philodox for punishment. But he gave her one of his own creation. He decided to drag her along to visit a sept deep in the cold, mountains of Colorado. In the chill and snow and rain. Alas. Word was being sent ahead that she'd need some... watching over. But it was believed that she needed a project, and a sept that needs to be rebuilt and guarded against seemed to be just the ticket. Miscellaneous If you want you can add in things like playlist, or other character information here. Category:Past PCs